Games

The Best Games About Climate Change

Published

4 weeks ago

October 26, 2024

Game narratives are always evolving with the times, and as climate change becomes a bigger and bigger concern for many around the world, it’s only natural that it should make its way into video games too.

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Whether it’s disturbing visions of the climate disaster or optimistic paths to an ecologically healthy future, there are a lot of ways to tackle the topic of climate change, and a lot of great games that try to do just that.

8 Frostpunk

Hell Frozen Over

Released: April 24, 2018
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

In the world of games about climate change, it’s hard to find one more dire than Frostpunk. Set in an alternate late-19th Century world where ecological disaster has resulted in global temperatures plummeting, billions die as the few survivors make communities around Furnaces, massive heaters that can just about sustain small communities living near them.

The player takes the unenviable task of trying to manage the dire situation. In the main campaign, the player has to get the whole burgeoning city ready for an apocalyptic week-long storm that is single-handedly one of the most stressful experiences in gaming (alongside the many other stressful scenarios in the game). Frostpunk is a fantastic post-apocalyptic city-builder, even if it is often very stressful.

7 Horizon Zero Dawn

Nature Reigns Supreme

Systems

Released: February 28, 2017
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

During the marketing and release of Horizon Zero Dawn, one of the main mysteries was how the world had succumbed to a near-apocalyptic state where all human civilization had vastly devolved, while great big robotic animals roam the plains.

No spoilers here, but it’s a surprisingly poignant tale of ecological collapse, and ecological rebirth too, both of which were brought about by the robots that now rule the planet, bringing in nature retaking and remaking the human world into something stunningly beautiful.

6 Anno 2070

The Future Is In Your Hands

Anno 2070

City Builder

Real-Time Strategy

Systems

Released: November 17, 2011
Developer: Related Designs, Ubisoft Blue Byte

Where once the future might have seemed like a place for optimism, these days, it’s hard to imagine what it might be like with the oncoming storm of climate change. That’s a task that Anno 2070 tackles beautifully as one of the best entries in the revered series.

Players must build a city in the near future and carefully manage their Eco Balance system, which is predicated on how many pollutants they put out into the world. Sometimes, more industry equals better efficiency and production rates, but rising sea levels can lead to total disaster. It’s a delicate balance to strike, and the game does a remarkable job of modeling real-world conflicts of interest when it comes to climate change.

5 Death Stranding

The Ecological Apocalypse

OpenCritic: Top Critic Rating:83/100 Critics Recommend:79%

Released: November 8, 2019

Hideo Kojima always has his finger on the pulse of current issues, and that is no different in Death Stranding, which depicts a world ravaged by Timefall, an ecological phenomenon where the falling rain rapidly ages anything it touches. We’ll forget about the dead coming back to life for the time being.

What results is a poignantly lonely world where the human inhabitants are largely confined to bunkers and sheltered cities while the rest of the world has been reclaimed by nature, which Sam Porter Bridges traverses using a garage full of unique vehicles. It’s both apocalyptic and beautiful, and a wholly unique way of discussing climate change.

4 Factorio

Nature Fights Back

Simulation

Real-Time Strategy

Systems

Released: August 14, 2020
Developer(s): Wube Software
OpenCritic Rating: Strong

Lately, factory games have been all the rage, and it’s hard to deny the sheer pleasure of having a system set up that seamlessly churns out beautiful production of various colors. However, Factorio has a sneaky thorn ready to annoy every player.

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It turns out that the planet where the player has landed is far from empty. In fact, it is the home planet of a bug-like species that tries to take out the player’s factory because of the pollution it’s causing. Soon, the player needs to fight the bugs (and a litany of mods makes that job a lot easier), even though they’re the invaders. It’s clearly presented in a tongue-in-cheek way, but it’s still a pretty impressive way of indicating the incentives behind climate change.

3 Civilization 6

The Gathering Storm

Released: October 21, 2016
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

When the Gathering Storm DLC was released for Civilization 6, some players were reticent about how the game was implementing climate change mechanics when Civ 6 mostly takes place in the past when such ecological changes weren’t such an issue.

However, what resulted was actually a fantastic and well-thought-out series of interconnected systems involving carbon emissions shared across all civilizations, resulting in rising sea levels and tangible penalties against civilizations that cause too many emissions. It’s not exactly subtle, but it gets the point across through a series of really engaging mechanics.

2 Terra Nil

Rejuvenate The World

Terra Nil

Systems

Released: March 28, 2023
Developer: Free Lives
OpenCritic Rating: Strong

Climate change can sometimes be a controversial topic, particularly whenic comes to discussions on how to address it, which means sometimes it’s best to leave it to the indies. That is exactly what Terra Nil does as a great game for beginner strategy players to try.

Players are tasked with trying to rejuvenate a wasteland back into an ecological paradise. What results is a really interesting puzzle game where players need to strategically find power, build resources to regrow nature, and then extricate themselves from the land they just developed as if they were never there in the first place. It’s a fun and optimistic game that’s well worth playing.

1 Final Fantasy 7

Mako Makes Might

Released: January 31, 1997
OpenCritic Rating: Strong

Final Fantasy 7 was ahead of its time in more ways than can be counted, but recently, it has been praised for bringing conversations about climate change and conservation to the foreground, with the player even controlling actual eco-terrorists.

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In the game, players take on the role of Cloud and his group of friends who (at different times) make up Avalanche, a group dedicated to taking down the Shinra Corporation who are using a unique planet resource called Mako, often referred to as the lifeblood of the planet, for their own profits. Having the players take the role of eco-terrorists is a genuinely bold step, and one that translated brilliantly into the modern remake series.